Hong Kong, 18 September 1997 (RFE/RL) - The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised China's Communist party congress for focusing on the need to transform the country's central state enterprises into efficient firms as the next step in reforms.
IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus told a news conference in Hong Kong today that this is one of the "essential challenges" facing China because these inefficient, less productive companies are putting a "very heavy burden" on Beijing's budget.
Camdessus said China also must fix its tax system, which is not attuned to the growing private sector, fight corruption, and reduce the growing disparities in income around the country.
Camdessus is in Hong Kong for the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. He listed seven reasons he is confident about the state of the global economy going into the meetings, one of which is that the nations in transition are now "truly and actively completing the process of transformation."
He also noted that the countries of East and Central Europe and Central Asia are now in their first year of overall economic growth.